Anyone adopt from a photolisting?

The sibling group of 4 my husband and I are considering adopting is from a photolisting, so I am also curious about this!

We adopted my daughter via adoption photolisting. Our goal all along was to adopt a waiting child from foster care, and we were working with an agency that had a specific program for that. We identified children on the photolisting we were interested in, and our agency would submit our home study.I think how long the process takes probably varies tremendously from state to state. For us, we were notified that we had been selected for her in November, started phone calls with her in January, met her in mid-February, had about 4 weeks of weekend visits, then she moved in with us late March. It went smoothly but at the time it felt like it took forever.The thing to keep in mind with the photolistings is that kids are on them because they have been hard to place in their home area. There's always a reason they were hard to place. Sometimes that reason is something you're prepared to deal with, sometimes it's not. In the case of my daughter, it was basically a combination of her age and her race, neither of which was an issue for us. Other common reasons are physical or mental handicaps, medical needs, being part of a sibling group, or emotional/behavioral problems. If you're looking at a listing of a child where you can't see any reason they would be hard to place - know that there is one, and that you need to find out what it is.

Thank you for your reply. It's nice to hear from someone who has been there.

I am really happy I found this thread because my husband and I are looking at a sister & brother sibling set. I made an inquiry and found out that they are legally free for adoption. We will be done with our MAPP classes on Dec. 10th (I know, we have a long way to go). I am glad I read bjolly's post, it makes me hopeful! Goodluck to you!

good luck!! Just remember to read between the lines!! very active = ADHD needs to be the only or youngest child in the home = he/she is a danger to other children the list goes on and on..... we looked into some kids also a couple of years ago, and were shocked what they DON"T tell you. thank goodness we had a CW who was able to get us the whole childprofile on the children BEFORE we even applied... it was horrible. just remember, that children who go on the photolisting have most of the time HUGE issues, and not all of them are physical! I don't want to discourage you from looking, just make you aware of the possibilities ... best of luck!!

I adopted my two from the photolisting here on Adoption.com. It was fairly easy process. I don't regret a thing!:prop:

I adopted my daughter (instate though), off Adoption Exchange website.. Shes amazing..been with me for 4 years... Love of my life :banana: Year later got a call from her caseworker for two boys legally free- 1 and 2.. adopted them the following year:banana: Even in state took FOREVER- inquired in March, ended up not meeting her till October, moved in in December..

We adopted our two sons when they were 15 & 16 from a photo listing on our state foster care website. We love them so much! Once we met them, the process took a total of six months, and they were ours. I agree that children are put in the photo listings because they are harder to place, but it might simply be due to their age or race. Our boys are great! No ADHD, no RAD, no medical issues. We are truly blessed and don't regret adopting them a bit! Good luck!

Thank you so much for posting this; I live in MO and we are looking to soley adopt (we've fostered once) but want to raise a child of our own. I look at photolistings but we also have some feelers out in our state that have been sent to us. Has anyone done a pre-interview for an adoption? We did one, didn't get the child, but I still kick myself on some of the answers we gave. 1 was "Do you want the child to take your last name?" i was totally blindsided, my biological dad had to adopt me (name not on birth certificate); so I know what its like having a ton of names. I was like, well that's up to the child I would guess; I felt deflated at the looks given. A lot I wasn't prepared for as far as answering. We are not parents ourselves so going into this is scary and very un-nerving.

Kids on photo listing - are they the only ones they have in database or are there more not listed?

As I understand it the listed one's are just a few of those who need homes.

We are waiting to hear back on an inquiry we made on a girl on our state's listing. We found her listing in October right after we started our MAPP classes and she was still waiting in January when we finished up. Her CW has our homestudy and supplemental forms, we are waiting to hear if we get the referral or not.

Always remember that photolistings are used for the most hard-to-place children. There are many children who never appear on photolistings, because they can be placed very easily.Also remember to take what you read on a photolisting with a large grain of salt. Because the person listing the child may not be a person who has extensive personal knowledge of the child, information may not be 100% accurate. Also, because social workers want to see the photolisted children get homes, and to protect their privacy, information about their situation may be "sanitized" or glossed over. Hence, you may not find out that the child experienced sexual abuse, that the child was born alcohol-exposed, that there is a history of the child harming other children or small animals, or that, at 10, the child is unable to tell time or read. Look for euphemisms, such as "the child has a sensitive special need", which may mean that the child has malformed or ambiguous genitalia, that the child is most likely transgender, that the child was conceived in incest, or that the child's parents were mentally ill or cognitively challenged. All such issues could mean that it will be fairly difficult to meet the child's needs. Look for phrases such as "some challenging behaviors" and multiply them by a factor of 10 to think about how serious those behaviors are. Make sure to request lots of additional information, as well as to ask about the possibility of talking with the child's foster parents.Sharon